Don't You Just Love The New York Times?

[immaculata]

Thought I'd share what the secular world is talking about on the Feast of the Assumption.. If I ever had the chance to sit this guy down and discuss with him, I'd be able to poke holes all through his article.. But unfortunately, he's allowed to plaster his garbage all over America, leading countless people astray without any chance for believers to refute. THIS is why I plan to study journalism and get the TRUTH out there!!!

All for the Immaculata,

Katrina

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Believe It, or Not

By Nicholas D. Kristof

Op-Ed Columnist, New York Times

Today marks the Roman Catholics' Feast of the Assumption, honoring the moment that they believe God brought the Virgin Mary into Heaven. So here's a fact appropriate for the day: Americans are three times as likely to believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus (83 percent) as in evolution (28 percent).

So this day is an opportunity to look at perhaps the most fundamental divide between America and the rest of the industrialized world: faith. Religion remains central to American life, and is getting more so, in a way that is true of no other industrialized country, with the possible exception of South Korea.

Americans believe, 58 percent to 40 percent, that it is necessary to believe in God to be moral. In contrast, other developed countries overwhelmingly believe that it is not necessary. In France, only 13 percent agree with the U.S. view. (For details on the polls cited in this column, go to www.nytimes.com/kristofresponds.)

The faith in the Virgin Birth reflects the way American Christianity is becoming less intellectual and more mystical over time. The percentage of Americans who believe in the Virgin Birth actually rose five points in the latest poll.

My grandfather was fairly typical of his generation: A devout and active Presbyterian elder, he nonetheless believed firmly in evolution and regarded the Virgin Birth as a pious legend. Those kinds of mainline Christians are vanishing, replaced by evangelicals. Since 1960, the number of Pentecostalists has increased fourfold, while the number of Episcopalians has dropped almost in half.

The result is a gulf not only between America and the rest of the industrialized world, but a growing split at home as well. One of the most poisonous divides is the one between intellectual and religious America.

Some liberals wear T-shirts declaring, "So Many Right-Wing Christians . . . So Few Lions." On the other side, there are attitudes like those on a Web site, dutyisours.com/gwbush.htm, explaining the 2000 election this way:

"God defeated armies of Philistines and others with confusion. Dimpled and hanging chads may also be because of God's intervention on those who were voting incorrectly. Why is GW Bush our president? It was God's choice."

The Virgin Mary is an interesting prism through which to examine America's emphasis on faith because most Biblical scholars regard the evidence for the Virgin Birth, and for Mary's assumption into Heaven (which was proclaimed as Catholic dogma only in 1950), as so shaky that it pretty much has to be a leap of faith. As the Catholic theologian Hans K?ng puts it in "On Being a Christian," the Virgin Birth is a "collection of largely uncertain, mutually contradictory, strongly legendary" narratives, an echo of virgin birth myths that were widespread in many parts of the ancient world.

Jaroslav Pelikan, the great Yale historian and theologian, says in his book "Mary Through the Centuries" that the earliest references to Mary (like Mark's gospel, the first to be written, or Paul's letter to the Galatians) don't mention anything unusual about the conception of Jesus. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke do say Mary was a virgin, but internal evidence suggests that that part of Luke, in particular, may have been added later by someone else (it is written, for example, in a different kind of Greek than the rest of that gospel).

Yet despite the lack of scientific or historical evidence, and despite the doubts of Biblical scholars, America is so pious that not only do 91 percent of Christians say they believe in the Virgin Birth, but so do an astonishing 47 percent of U.S. non-Christians.

I'm not denigrating anyone's beliefs. And I don't pretend to know why America is so much more infused with religious faith than the rest of the world. But I do think that we're in the middle of another religious Great Awakening, and that while this may bring spiritual comfort to many, it will also mean a growing polarization within our society.

But mostly, I'm troubled by the way the great intellectual traditions of Catholic and Protestant churches alike are withering, leaving the scholarly and religious worlds increasingly antagonistic. I worry partly because of the time I've spent with self-satisfied and unquestioning mullahs and imams, for the Islamic world is in crisis today in large part because of a similar drift away from a rich intellectual tradition and toward the mystical. The heart is a wonderful organ, but so is the brain.

Nicholas D. Kristof is an op-ed columnist for the New York Times.

[cmotherofpirl]

THis guy is correct in several ways.

[hyperdulia again]

Just for the record I believe in the Virgin Birth and the Assumption.

But, I must say that real faith is dying in this country, every religion from Catholicism to Hinduism is being attacked by almost medeival superstition on the one hand and complete denial and misbelief on the other. Man has lost sight of the transcendant and of objective truth and replaced them with the kind of wishy-washy fellings based non-sense that every serious religious thinnker from every tradition I've read about warned against. God has become in the popular mind either Sannta in the Sky or non-existant.

[Chrysologus]

If we're this religious and this is as good we are, Europe must be the pit of hell.

[cmotherofpirl]

Europe is considered mission territory.

[Brother Adam]

America is missionary territory.

[littleflower+JMJ]

Thought I'd share what the secular world is talking about on the Feast of the Assumption..  If I ever had the chance to sit this guy down and discuss with him, I'd be able to poke holes all through his article.. But unfortunately, he's allowed to plaster his garbage all over America, leading countless people astray without any chance for believers to refute.  THIS is why I plan to study journalism and get the TRUTH out there!!!

All for the Immaculata,

Katrina

you go girl!! go get them! God needs all the catholic journalism He can get this days!!

;)

[Norseman82]

If we're this religious and this is as good we are, Europe must be the pit of hell.

Have you ever read about what is going on in Amsterdam with the pot/coffeehouses? The legalized prostitution? The euthanasia?

What about the same-sex marriages in several countries?

And look at church attendance in nominally "Catholic" countries - I've heard it is as low as 10% in Italy.

You may think you were joking, but trust me, you are on to something.

Which explains why the Pope is so concerned about his native Poland (the land of my ancestors too) going the way of western Europe.

[Norseman82]

Seriously, Immaculata, what you posted is better than some that I've heard. They actually did not go out of their way to discredit the Catholic Church.

But the secular media is not known for always quoting accurate representatives of Catholicism. Case in point: there was a History Channel show on some tpoic - either the bible, miracles, or something - and who did they interview? Dominic Crossan (sp)!!! He was the one who was involved in that Jesus Seminar that brought forth that Jesus may have risen physically onl in the minds of his disciples!

[Chrysologus]

It's almost enough to make even a Catholic boy like myself think the end of the world is hot on our heels...